Lost or Left Out of Translation

You can put a “schmear” on a bagel, and you can even put a schmear on a schwamm, but you wouldn’t want a schwamm on a schmear on your bagel.

Got that?

We won’t keep you in suspense (like we normally would). A common way to order a bagel is with a “schmear” of cream cheese on it. Put another way, it’s asking for cream cheese to be spread on a bagel. There are other uses of the word with German origins (it is also a Yiddish term for a bribe), but we’re keeping things simple for now.

Like schmear, ‘schwamm’ also has Germanic roots, and though it’s not a word one would normally hear in a deli, it could be if one needed to describe a certain cake or bread texture.  You see, ‘schwamm’ is German for “sponge-like,” and it is more commonly found in the German version of the Saint Bernard’s FCI breed standard. Specifically, the sentence reads, “Nasenschwamm: Schwarz, breit und eckig; Nasenlöcher gut geöffnet,” which translated into English is: “Nose leather: Black, broad and square; nostrils well opened.

  • “”Nasenschwamm” literally translates to “nose sponge,” while “schwarz” means “black” “breit” means “broad” or “wide,” “eckig” means “angular” or “square,” “nasenlöcher” means “nostrils,” and “gut geöffnet” means “well opened.”

The English version simply reads, “Nose: Black, broad and square. Nostrils well opened.”

Maybe it’s just us, but we find “nose sponge” to be so much more descriptive than just “nose.” It adds texture to our mental image of a Saint Bernard’s “schnozzle,” a black, fleshy proboscis just begging to be gently and lovingly “honked.”

There is a lot to be said for reading a breed standard in the language of its home country, and especially the original standard, if you can find it. Sadly (in our view), efficiency and speed in a show ring has put a premium on succinctly worded breed standards, and the full flavor of what breed creators had in mind is lost in translation, or omitted altogether.

Image of Saint Bernard by ©Hurleysb/Dreamstime

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